Biography

Dr. Portia L. Cole received her BA degree in Sociology at George Washington University, an M.S.W. degree at Catholic University of America and her PhD in Sociology at American University. She was awarded a Pre-Doctoral Fellowship by the American Sociological Association and specialized in mental health and social policy during her doctoral program. Her dissertation explored the impact of Sickle Cell disease (SCD) on the mental health of Black women. In 2004, she was awarded a W.K. Kellogg Health Disparities Post Doctoral Fellowship and was placed at Morgan State University's Public Health Program where she studied the role of the Black church in cancer prevention. Dr. Cole is currently an Assistant Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) School of Social Work and is currently teaching advanced graduate course(s) in health policy. In 2007, Dr. Cole was honored with the award of an H. Jack Geiger Congressional Health Policy Fellowship and served as a health legislative assistant in the late Senator Edward Kennedy's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee office. In this role, she participated in national public policy decisions and discourse to improve the health status of racial/ethnic minority populations. Since her return to VCU, she continues to conduct research on SCD, health disparities, and work-family conflict stress among women of color. In addition, she is the co-principal investigator of The Family Law Clinic, a multidisciplinary project of the University of Richmond (UR) Law School and Virginia Commonwealth University. In this role, Dr. Cole oversees the instruction of social work students who work alongside UR law students to ensure that clients have access to psychological care, counseling and social work services.